Seriously!

More than a year ago was the last time I posted-shameful! It's not that nothing was going on, it's that too much was going on for me to process. I also spent a good part of last year in a funk, having my own little pity party. Pretty sad. I didn't even realize that's what I was doing until I heard someone describe me so perfectly that the lights finally went on. (That person was actually referring to someone else). Basically I was so completely focused on my own trials and struggles that it prevented me from reaching out to anyone else around me. I wanted people to notice that I was struggling but at the same time, I was terrified that someone would notice that I was struggling. Complicated, huh. Thankfully, I pulled my head out and things are changing. I am excited for the holidays, I am excited to serve those around me and I feel like I am breathing fresh clean air instead of stale dingy air.
I'm not sure I'm feeling up to a recap of the last year, so for now I'm just moving ahead. Christmas is almost here-only 15 more days! While I'm not exactly ready for it, I am still excited for the time I will get to spend with my family-relaxing, eating and being together. Ashton is the only one who is unsure about Santa. He tried to convince me that Santa isn't real, but I wasn't having it. I even sent him a video "from" Santa to try and postpone the inevitable. I think it's working for now. It will be kind of sad when we get to that point where no one wants to wake up early on Christmas morning though.
In September Jason rode in Lotoja, which is a 206 mile cycling race form Logan Utah to Jackson Hole Wyoming. He is crazy enough to want to do it again this year, so he decided to do a winter cycling camp to help him stay in shape and get stronger. As part of the camp, he has a temporary membership at the Treehouse Athletic Club. It was cheap to add me on as well, so for the last month I have been going to the gym several times a week. The classes are awesome for me because I lack the self motivation required to make myself do things that are physically hard. When I go to a class, there is pressure to keep up with the other people as well as pressure to not look like a complete wimp. Perfect for me! My favorite class is a Zumba class on thursday nights. I go with my friend Merrilee and I look forward to it all week. It is the perfect combination of exercise and dance club. I'm pretty sure I look ridiculous-in fact I laugh everytime I look in the mirror, but I love it. I try to go to a class at least 3 times a week, so I have been able to try many different things. My other favorite is a class called Raising the Barre which is sort of a ballet/dance based workout. I definitely feel the effects of those exercise endorphins and I love the fact that I am in better shape; well working on being in better shape.
Now that I've broken the silence, I'm thinking it will be easier to start posting again. The hardest part is getting back on the horse, right? Let's hope.

Thankful

I'm not sure why it has been so difficult lately to post on here. I have lots of things to write about, many events to document, yet I just don't seem to do it. Sigh....
Many people I know have been doing a "thankful" post on Facebook for every day in November. I keep thinking that I should do it too, only now it is November 22! I have so much to be thankful for, so I am just gonna write them all down here, well 30 of them anyway. Here we go, in no particular order...
1. My family. All of them, immediate, extended and inlaws.
2. My kids.
3. Our good health.
4. A warm house.
5. Running water.
6. Abundant food.
7. Cars that work.
8. Friends, old, new and far away.
9. People that make me laugh.
10. People that make me think.
11. The Gospel.
12. Temples.
13. Changes that give me the opportunity to learn and grow.
14. Hand me downs.
15. Books.
16. An understanding of the Plan of Salvation.
17. An interesting job.
18. A most wonderful, incredible and good looking husband.
19. My bed and pillow.
20. A washer and dryer that work.
21. The internet.
22. My gray hairs.
23. A new start every day.
24. My bedroom.
25. Kisses, snuggles and hugs from my kids.
26. Children who are making good choices.
27. The new things I learn all the time.
28. That I am still in love with my husband.
29. Good memories.
30. That I live in a free country.

'Cause we are beautiful no matter what they say

Dear Dr Heidi,
Every time I drive on the freeway I see your billboards. Most often it is the one that features small lemons positioned so that they look like breasts, along with the tag line "Turning lemons into lemonade" Breast Augmentation by Dr Heidi. Today I saw another one with a picture of 2 small lemons next to 2 cantaloupes which were next to 2 watermelons. This was also labeled Breast Augmentation by Dr Heidi. As clever as the wordplays and images may be, I find the association of body parts with lemons to be quite disturbing. Could you be suggesting that if certain body parts do not measure up to someone's standard that there is something wrong with them? Though a lemon is a fruit, the dictionary also defines it as "something that is unsatisfactory or defective". How many young girls will see those billboards and wonder if something is wrong with them because they don't look like a swimsuit model. Will they feel like their bodies are defective and need to be fixed? As a woman and a doctor, I would hope that you would be more aware of the many physical and mental health issues that are caused by unhealthy body images. While I am not against plastic surgery in general, I am definitely against advertising that targets women and girls and insinuates that their bodies are not good enough unless they look a certain way. Shame on you for doing just that. I hope in the future, you will rethink your advertising slogans and send a more positive message.
(Lyrics from Beautiful by Christina Aguilera)

Tick Tock on the clock but the party don't stop...

New Years Eve! We decided to break from tradition and go somewhere this year. Our friend Nicole had a date and they were going to go to a masquerade ball. Sounds awesome right? Two words-Single Adult.

Now I don't have anything against single adults, I was just worried that it would be weird to go to a single adult dance as a married couple. In the end, I decided that the fun of dressing up and doing something different outweighed the weirdness.

The dance was up in Layton, so we planned on stopping for dinner before we went. Well, one thing led to another and we actually ended up picking up Olive Garden and then eating it in the car. It was mostly my fault-I haven't really had to "get ready" for much in a while, so it took longer than I thought.

We got to the dance about the same time as Nicole and her date. When we walked in I had an immediate flashback to the stake dances of my youth. Some people were dancing, but many were just standing on the sides of the room. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I saw. I'm not going to go into detail for fear of completely putting my foot in my mouth, but let's just say-anyone who is thinking about getting divorced because they think they are missing out on "the single life" needs to come to one of these dances. Now I am looking at it from an LDS perspective, so maybe being over 30 and single is much more fabulous if you're not LDS. Who knows!

Overall, we did have a great time dancing. We stayed until about 1am and then drove back home and had Nicole and her date over for ice cream. Jason and I both had a fun night and would definitely do it again next year. (Lyrics from "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha)

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Yes, I do know that it's April. I'm just trying to create a mood! See, I have been holding off from sharing my awesome thoughts because I felt like I needed to finish up last year before I started anything new. Sooo, pretend it is the end of December, it's snowing lightly and you are warm and cozy and snuggled up to your computer. Aaahhh.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was great-lot's of tradition and not too much stress. Some years I have felt overwhelmed by all of the things I felt like I had to do but this year seemed to go much smoother. I wish I knew why! We had our annual Christmas Eve party with Jason's family. Now that I have been attending for the last 16 years, I guess I could call it my family party also. It's always fun to see all of the cousins every year and see the new babies and how everyone has grown. Santa Claus is the main event of the night and everybody gets a chance to sit on his lap. Aren't we cute!

After the Price party, we usually go to either Jason's parent's house or one of his brother or sister's homes to exchange gifts with the immediate family. The cousins all draw names and have a fun time getting gifts for each other. I could describe it best as contained chaos. I mean, what else would you expect with a stack of presents, 18 kids, their parents, their grandparents and their great grandma? I look forward to it every year. After we left Jen and Drew's house, we went home and got the kids in bed, waited until they fell asleep and then wrapped presents. Note to self, "please be kind to yourself and wrap the presents ahead of time!" I think we rolled into bed somewhere after 2am.

Christmas morning we managed to sleep until about 7:30. Everyone was delighted with their presents and we enjoyed a yummy breakfast together. Our usual tradition is to take a picture of each of the kids with their presents. Unfortunately, Jason and I opted for a nap and then forgot about the pictures. Oh well. Nicole and Brynna came over around 4 for dinner. We had our usual mexican feast and then played games until we were too tired to sit up. The kids watched their new movies and played with their toys. It was a wonderful day!

With a dreamy, far-off look and her nose stuck in a book

I have always loved to read. I remember often getting trouble at school because I would hide the book I was reading behind the text book I was supposed to be reading. The teacher would either figure it out, or they would ask me a question and I would be totally oblivious. That was a little embarassing. While I don't read as much as I used to, I still thought I read quite a bit. Since I tracked all of my books from last year, I was able to count how many I had actually read. It was an eye opener. I only read 53 books. Now that may sound like a lot, but that's only roughly 1 a week. That doesn't seem like alot to me. I was actually really disappointed when I counted them up. My husband pointed out that I do have 5 kids, work 24 hours a week and spend another 5 hours a week running another business. Frankly, I don't think those are valid excuses.

I started thinking of a goal I could set this year-100 books? Although I seamlessly fit in 53 books, I actually think it might disrupt my life a little if I doubled that number. I also think it might put a little bit of strain on my marriage. Why is it that husbands feel like a good book is competition to them? Aah, but I digress....maybe 60 is a reasonable goal? That would still only be like 1.15 books a week. I think I will do 75. That will be a better challenge. I am also going to try and read some more "intelligent" books. Sometimes I feel like the books I read are like fast food, quick, easy and disposable. I am going to try and be more selective and not just read something because it is there. There you go-a new goal for a new year. Help me out and send me recommendations, please!

(Lyrics in title are from "Belle" in Beauty and the Beast)

Just another manic monday

Here we go. It's early monday morning before the kids head back to school. While the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas were packed with preparations, parties and performances, we did manage to create some wonderful memories with friends and family. We got in many hours of game playing, enjoyed relaxing and watching the christmas lights and laughed together about silly things. Even though it drove me crazy that my house was in a constant state of mess, I loved being able to stay up late with the kids and then sleep in. I loved not sticking to a schedule and not having to worry about homework and practices and projects. It all starts again tomorrow. I'm not sure I am ready.

(featured lyrics from Manic Monday by the Bangles)

Goody two shoes, goody goody two shoes

When I was a teenager I had a keychain that read"I only look sweet and innocent". I felt like that phrase fit me to a tee. It made me feel dangerous and mysterious. While I really wasn't all that dangerous and I was pretty naive, I did NOT want to be classified as "sweet and innocent". Ewww!

So, in an attempt to be less sweet and more ummm, something; I did some pretty stupid things. Nothing that would cause lifelong consequences but nothing that I would want my kids to do either. As I reflect back on that time in my life I wonder why I thought it was so awful to be thought of as "good". I guess I thought it was boring and that interesting people would never look past the good girl image.

Fast forward about 10 years. After some hard lessons and soul searching I realize that I should want to be good. That having skeletons in the closet is not always something that makes you more interesting. Sometimes it is better to have just done things the right way.

Fast forward to now. Most people would probably classify me as nice and sweet. I really do want to be that transparent, childlike person that you can always count on to do what is right but I still get a thrill when people learn something about me and are a little shocked. I still like to think of myself as mysterious and multi faceted but I also have a sincere desire to stay on the straight and narrow path.

I guess the reason I have been thinking about this at all is that I look at my kids and I want them to want to be good. I don't want to force them, I want them to realize that happiness comes from making right choices even if other people consider you a "goody two shoes". I don't want them to struggle with what other people might think, I want them to have a strong enough sense of self that other's opinions don't matter. Isn't that what being a parent is about? Wanting more for your kids than what you had? I guess the catch is just trying to help them get somewhere you haven't been.

(Featured lyrics from Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant)

Hey good lookin', whatcha got cookin'

Halloween is one of those holidays that I don't always get into. While I was like "whatever" in terms of costumes. I felt compelled to come up with something spooky for dinner before the kids headed out to trick or treat. It probably helped that Halloween was on a saturday and I felt like I had a lot of time to pull things together. When my kids came down to dinner and saw what they would be eating, they were a little bit horrified. They wanted to know where I got these things that we were going to eat. I calmly told them that I had caught someone trying to sneak pieces of the Halloween candy when they weren't supposed to. The result was our dinner.

Hands! Yummy, especially with whipped bone puree and blood sauce. There were many requests for the middle fingers (giggle, giggle) and the dinner was enjoyed by all.

On another front, I was getting my hair cut and my hairdresser had an adorable paper shoe filled with candy on her shelf. I decided I had to make some 'cause it was so freaking cute. I googled "paper shoe with treats" and got the pattern I needed. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? I honestly don't know how I ever lived without it. Anyway,this is how it turned out-sorry for the blurry picture.

And, the song and artist for today are "Hey Good Lookin'" by Hank Williams Jr. Listen to it on my playlist. This is also my ringtone when Jason calls me.

Just call me Martha...

Martha Quinn that is. What? You don't know who Martha Quinn is? You obviously were not around in the 80's. She was a vjay for MTV and most recently is a djay on XM radio's 80's on 8. As I was dancing in my car the other day I was thinking that so many situations in my life can be described by song lyrics. I was thinking how cool it would be to speak only in song lyrics for an entire day. The people who knew the songs would be like "whoa, that totally fits" while the people who didn't know the songs would just think you were crazy. I'm ok with that. The problem is, I don't really have the mental time to devote to this project right now. Instead I decided that from now on, the title of all of my blog posts will be lyrics from a song. Anyone who reads my blog (my imaginary audience) can play "name that song" for their own amusement. I will put the answer at the end of the post. Doesn't this sound fun!!! Just so I can practice, I will write another blog post.

Cheesy Pizza Pasta

Come and see it at www.mycrazykitchen.blogspot.com

More new recipes

I have another new recipe to share. It is on my recipe blog at
www.mycrazykitchen.blogspot.com
This is where I post new recipes and old recipes that are "keepers". Enjoy your visit!

New Recipes!

My sister Mandy has been doing a fun thing on her blog. Every week she tries a new recipe and then writes about it. I am going to join her in the hopes that we can keep each other motivated! Here is her blog address http://blahblahblahblog.typepad.com/. I have actually tried many new recipes but I always forget to take pictures! Here are the last couple and the pictures that I managed to take. Enjoy!



Orange Marinated Pork Tenderloin (Allrecipes #58941)

1 c Orange Juice

1/3 c Soy sauce

2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

3 tsp minced garlic

Pork tenderloin



Make the marinade by whisking together all of the ingrediants. Pour over tenderloin and marinate for at least one hour, preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drain pork, reserving marinade. Place on baking sheet and season with salt and peper. Roast for about 20 minutes until internal temp is 160 degrees.

Strain the reserved marinade and bring it to a boil in a small saucepan. Use as a sauce for the meat.



This recipe could not have been easier. I made the marinade on satuday night and then put it in a ziploc bag with the meat. (I had to cut the tenderloin in half so it would fit) It stayed in the fridge until sunday evening and then we cooked it on the grill. It was super tender and had a nice flavor. My kids all took leftovers to school the next day. Great option for a nice looking main dish with very little fuss.

Here we go again

It's that time of year again. Summer vacation is officially over; back to regular bedtimes, and a little bit of peace and quiet the day. While I'm as ready for this as the next mom, I'm not sure if I am ready for all of the other activities that inevitably come along with the school year. There's piano lessons for Baylie and Lexie, which continued through the summer but now move to the evenings, there's violin lessons, which will replace piano lessons for Kelsie, there's soccer for Hallie, which involves a practice night and a game night, there's Activity days for Lexie and Kelsie and then there's cross country, play practice, young womens, and a very part time job for Baylie. On top of all of this I need to fit in math and LA for everyone, reading time, practice time, dinner as a family and a reasonable bedtime. I limit my kids to 1 activity at a time but with 5 kids it is still crazy! I feel like we barely have time to get through homework and practices and then it's time for bed. I would love for Lexie and Kelsie to also have a physical activity and Hallie to have a music or dance activity but there is no way we could fit it in. I waver between feeling good that we sit down together almost every night for dinner and feeling guilty that I don't let my kids take advantage of all the activities that are available. I know that I would have a hard time being a good mom if I were constantly running around every night, I know that it is important to choose between good things, and I know it is important for my kids to spend time in our home and with each other. So why do I feel like a bad mom whenever I hear about so and so who is a classical pianist, accomplished dancer and straight A student? (this is merely an example and is not meant to implicate a real person) I know people who seem to pull these things off and it doesn't appear to exact a toll on their family, why can't I do it?

And there you have it, the ugly truth of the matter. Unfortunately, I guess it all boils down to the usual "what's the matter with me". Not that that is a usual refrain for me. I try really hard to accept myself and not compare myself to others. I guess I am just sensitive about having my parenting abilities judged based on the skills of my child. We all want what is best for our kids, I just wish it were more obvious what the best things for each child were. So, for now I guess I just need to trust that I am doing the best that I can and try not to second guess myself too much. In the meantime, if anyone see's any glaring insufficiencies in my children, break it to me gently.

My sanity spot

The other day I was able to finish cleaning up my storage room. Now, while I do this several times a year, apparently I forget how nice it is to have it clean and organized. It's way too easy to just drop off a case of this or a bag of that or pull a bucket out just to grab something. This is why I have to clean and organize several times a year. Ever since I finished the other day, I have found myself just going in to look at it at random times during the day. Every time I am in the laundry room, I can't resist a quick look at my storage room. Weird, huh? I was thinking about why it makes me so happy and I realized several things.

1. It is probably the only room in the house that nobody but me messes with. Occasionally I send the kids down to get something, but other than that they never bother with it. This means that for better or for worse, it always stays just how I leave it. That in itself is miraculous to me.

2. You can't hear the phone ring in the storage room. Need I say more?

3. I can use my label machine to my hearts content. Can you say neatly labeled buckets, shelves and cans. Aaah, contentment!

4. The kids frequently forget that we have a storage room, so it is a good hiding place when I need a time out. It also dampens the sound really well so that when they're yelling for me, I can honestly say "I did answer you, you just didn't hear me!"

5. I'm surrounded by food, duh!

Here are a few pictures of my haven. Baylie-when you read this, consider yourself initiated in some of the important details of motherhood. Hold them sacred and secret!

PS. I know there are empty shelves-Empty shelves in storage room=not good. I'm working on it! Baby steps people,baby steps

Grandma Davie

When I was a little girl, I grew up with my Grandpa Garrison and Grandma Mary (My Dad's stepmother) close by, and then Grandma Davie and George in Utah. Grandma Davie was my only "real" grandma. I can remember talking to her on the phone on occasion, getting Christmas presents from her and visiting her in Utah. I always thought it was so cool that she had a mountain in her backyard. When I was in first grade we went to Utah over Christmas and we went to her house. I have many memories of playing with my cousins there and taking pictures together. I remember sliding down the stairs in our socks with Jason and Tyler. Later, when I was 16, Holly and I came out to Utah to go to EFY and we were able to stay with Grandma again. She took us shopping and cooked for us and George showed off the rock in his basement. There were occasional visits when we were in college and later after I was married. Even though we did not live close by and were not able to see her often, to me, she was "grandma".

Sadly, on May 6,2009, Grandma Davie died. My parents were fortunate enough to be here and were able to see her right before she went. Extended family came together for her funeral and we all shared our memories of her. There were many things that I never knew about my Grandma, my Mom and my Grandpa. I was able to recognize some of the character traits that have come down through our family from my Grandma. Hard work and independence were two of the big ones. I also recognize acceptance. The ability to move on past negative events without letting them make you negative, and the ability to let people be who they are-for better or worse. Learning more about my Grandma's life and consequently, my Mom's life, has also made me appreciate many of the incredible things my Mom has done. She made the decision to have a strong marriage and family despite a less than ideal family life of her own. She chose to always share the positive aspects of her childhood with us and she chose to be married in the temple and raise us with the gospel.

Kelsie's Baptism

Kelsie turned 8 on April 6th. Even though she could have been baptized on April 11, we decided to wait until May, so that she and Brynna could be baptized on the same day. It also allowed us to go out of town over spring break.

Well, the big day was May 2. Grandma and Grandpa Garrison came out and Holly and Brent also came with their kids. The weather was a little bit chilly and rainy but it was still a wonderful day.
We spent the morning doing some last minute shopping at Deseret Book and then Holly, my Mom and I went to lunch. It was a nice break before the rest of the busy day.

Kelsie and Brynna were the only ones from our ward being baptized, but there were also about 6 kids from other wards. Our ward was first and things moved along very quickly. Everything was over within about 45 minutes. We were able to stay together with Brynna and her family for the baptism and the confirmation so that was nice too. After the baptism we went back to our house for dinner. There were lots of people there, 34 to be exact! I had made Blackbean chicken and Cilantro lime rice and then everyone else brought different side dishes. We had banana splits for dessert. It was little crazy , but it is so fun to be with family.

Race for the Cure

Today I spent my morning downtown participating in Race for the Cure. I signed up for the 5K to support Kristine and my friend Nicole came with me. Now, I am not a runner by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured I would at least be able to walk it if nothing else. Since I haven't run since "fitness for death" at BYU, I did convince myself to do a few trial runs before the actual race. I ran a little over a mile, twice. I would have to say that I wasn't very commited to the idea. In fact, I kept hoping up until we got there, that I would break my leg, or something drastic so that I could just "sleep in for the cure" instead. I was regretting this lofty idea of suppporting my friend in this manner (sorry Kristine!).

Now the funny part of this, is that ever since college I have had this weird idea that I wanted to do a triathalon with no training. I wanted to see how far I could push my body and what I could accomplish "naturally". Very foolish idea. I apologize to all the serious athletes, who actually train and work hard, for thinking that I could just do it without any training and very little natural athleticism. Silly, silly me....

So today I started out running and then walked and then ran and just sort of did what I wanted to do. I even stopped to use the porta potty. My initial intent was to try to run at least half of it but apparently I lack the drive necessary to make myself do something that I really don't have to do. After all, it was for a cause, not for a competition. They weren't even really timing it for pete's sake! My lack of mental strength was bit shocking to me. Even though I felt pretty good the entire time I was out there, now that I have had a shower and stopped for a little while, I am totally feeling it! My legs, my back, my arms and pretty much everything hurts. I would love to just curl up in a ball and go back to sleep. Too bad I have things that need to be accomplished this afternoon.

I would have to say that the best part of the event was simply the feeling of being a part of something bigger than yourself. There were 18,000 people participating, most of whom have been touched by breast cancer in some way. I ran behind a little boy whose sign said "in support of my mom, survivor of 5 years", he couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 years old (that will be your girls, Kristine). There were many others, running in memory of loved ones, and roughly 600 survivors who also ran. It was heartwarming to see so many people joined together for a good cause. I am saving the memory to remind me, that there IS hope for this world when I am depressed about the future from reading the news for too long. Probably the other most impactful thing was a keychain we received. It has 4 circles on it, the first about 1 mm diameter, about the size of a pea. This stands for the average size of a lump which is detected through a mammogram when they have previous films to look at. The second circle is about 1 1/2 mm. It represents the average size of a lump that is discovered with a first mammogram. The third circle is about 2 mm in diameter and represents the average lump that can be found doing regular self exams. The fourth circle is about 3 1/2 mm and represents the average size lump that is discovered by accident. I don't know about anyone else, but I would not want to find something the size of a half dollar by accident.

I am definitely glad that I was there today, and did not break my leg. However, I am also almost, definitely sure, that running is not my thing. I may live to eat my words, but for now I am going back to my dreams of becoming a pro golfer. Look for me on the golf channel in a few more years!

The handywoman

I like to think that I can do anything. Even things that are mechanically challenging and not very ladylike. My friend Sallie is my hero, because she fixes all kinds of things. Since I have been married, I have mostly relegated these sorts of things to Jason and have become less motivated to try to figure them out. When our disposal stopped working right before our trip to Zions, I just told Jason about it and waited for him to fix it. I did scoop out the goo that was in the bottom and determine that the soil that Hallie had dumped in the sink while trying to water her bean seed, had rocks in it, and probably was to blame for the problem.

Well, by the following tuesday when the disposal was still broken, I realized that with Jason being gone so much right now, I probably ought to try and figure things out on my own again. I googled my problem and found that it was an easy fix. I took everything out from under the sink, used the little allen wrench and successfully fixed the disposal. I felt so good! I even cleaned out and rearranged all the junk that ends up under the kitchen sink. I decided that if I could fix the disposal then maybe I should move on to larger projects like tiling the laundry room or building a shelving system-think of all the power tools I could use! I continued thinking up projects that I could awe and surprise Jason with right up until the time that I went to put my wash in the dryer and found an inch of water on the laundry room floor. Crap!
A couple of weeks ago my washer started sounding like a rocketship trying to blast off, whenever it went into the spin cycle. At one point I had the repairman over, fixing a problem with my dryer (never buy a Frigidaire dryer )and he informed me that it was probably the drum bearing, which was a $600 repair. I looked it up online and was totally excited about ordering the parts and fixing it myself until I looked at the current part prices and realized I was still looking at at least $500 just for the part. Since this was the 2nd time this had happened (never buy a Frigidaire front loader) and the washer was 8 years old, I decided I would just replace it. However, I only expected it to grind to a halt-not empty its contents onto the floor. Thank goodness for wet vacs and friends.

My new washer promises to make me love doing laundry. I really don't mind doing laundry to start with but it is always exciting to get something new. I just hope I'm not replacing it's drum bearing 5 years after I buy it, right after the extended warranty runs out! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Spring Break

We love to go to Zion's National Park for spring break. When we planned our vacations in January we decided to go back again this year. As the date approached, my sister in law Jana called to say they were going to go down also, as were my other sister's in law Sharleen and Michelle and their families. My inlaws were also going to be staying in St George. I was excited that we would get to share the fun with cousins. A couple of weeks before we were supposed to go, Jason realized that he probably would not be able to leave until saturday. The kids got out of school on wednesday and our original plan was to leave thursday and come back on monday. I still wanted to go down on thursday, so Jason arranged for my father in law to drive us down with our trailer and help us get set up. Jana and Michelle had sick kids, so they decided not to come down. We ended up with a spot right next to Sharleen and her family which was just perfect. Their oldest daughter is a few years younger than Baylie and then they have a daughter the same age as Lexie and one the same age as Kelsie.

I was a little nervous about taking 5 kids hiking by myself, but I decided it would be fine as long as we stuck to the shorter hikes. We decided to do Emerald pools on friday. I had planned on only doing the lower pools but we went the wrong way and ended up at the middle pools. it worked out ok, but there were a lot of high drop offs that made me nervous with Ashton. Basically, we all started out together but as Ashton noticed the rocks and the dirt and got progressively slower, the girls got farther ahead. They ended up getting there probably 15 minutes ahead of us. We had lunch at the pools and then headed back down to check out the horseback riding and get some ice cream at the lodge. The girls were disappointed that the minimum age for the horses was 7. I told them they either had to wait 4 more years for Ashton to be 7 or they had to wait until there was another parent available so that the younger kids would have someone to stay back with them. Kelsie offered to have the lady in charge of the horses watch Hallie and Ashton, but she politely declined. Baylie got a funny video of the girls imitating one of the horses.
Friday evening we hung out at the trailer, rode bikes and watched movies. We had a small campfire with Mike and Sharleen when they got back and then we all went to bed.
On saturday we went over to Bumbleberries for the annual easter egg hunt. It was freezing! The kids got way too much candy as usual, but they had a great time. We planned to do a short hike with Mike and Sharleen but when we got to the River Walk, it was pouring rain. We got off the bus and waited in the rain to see if it would stop and then decided we would just be miserable if we hiked in the rain. We headed back and stopped at the museum to watch a film about the park and hear a ranger talk. While we were waiting for the ranger talk we discovered that Lexie was running a fever. I ended up taking Lexie,Kelsie and Ashton back to the trailer and then Baylie and Hallie came back with Sharleen. Jason was flying in that afternoon, so we went to St George to pick him up. We stopped at In-N-Out for dinner and then came back to our trailer. We took the kids over to the Imax theater to see "Monsters vs Aliens" in 3D. It was a great movie and the 3D effects were really fun.

On sunday we went to church, took family pictures and then went to St George to have dinner with Jason's parents. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we enjoyed lounging in the sun. That night we had another campfire and roasted marshmallows and made banana boats.
We pulled out bright and early monday morning and headed home. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the little bit of sunshine that we had. It was a good vacation.